AK Heater Installation.

[choogh]

Any of you AK owners like to guide me through the heater installation sequence before I go making a great hole in the b'head?
I spoke to Ken, and he gave me the gist,(I think) but would appreciate a "walk through" with pic's if possible.
Cheers
Charlie

[choogh]

Thanks Vince.
Pic's helped..noticed you placed the heater on the centre line and not over to the drivers side as mentioned by Ken, did you have any problems running the elec. cables to the gauges, speedo et al ?
Last one, where did/how did you obtains such a neat steering column end bush? fits in rather well...
Best Regards
Charlie.

[VinceGledhill]

No I never thought about putting it towards the drivers side. To be honest I never asked Ken. My calls to AK during the build were few. I know that with the manual situation they must get hundreds of the same call over and over again so, if I could figure it out I did.

The steering column end bush is direct from the Granada steering wheel that I have used. When I ordered my kit, I asked Ken if he could accomodate this steering mechanism. "No problem boy... Give it eeerrr... we'll sort it" was the reply.

No problems with the wires. One neat trick you may want to use when fitting your dash and wiring it all up is as follows.

At the very bottom of the dash, out of veiw of driver is a piece of fibreglass that holds the two sides together. I fitted 4 bolts into this "insulating" material. I then ran the following to the bolts.

Battery Feed
Ignition Feed
Sidelamp Feed
Earth.

So that when wiring up behind the dash and I needed one of the above, simply fitted yet another lug to the bolt in question.

In total about 10 or so lugs onto each bolt.

The dash sits on more fibreglass. Therefore no chance of shorting it all out.

Regards
Vince
Time served Auto Electrician
Lucas Leeds 1979-1983

[simon finlay]

I have yet to find a good heater set up for my Dax, the one supplied by them will not fit in my foot well as that is where the computer sits, so I have tried a couple behind the dash.They work ok'ish but just don't have the umph I want. What heater are you using in your AK and do you find it powerfull enough? Does it have a good blast of air to both feet and screen? ta Simon

[VinceGledhill]

The heater is what AK recommend. It is from a MK1 polo. Comes out really easily and is easy to fit. Works a treat.

On the polo there is some form of enabling hot or cold air, and has three speeds. I simply used the top two speeds and a two way switch. I filled the hole where cool air would circulate by blocking it off with foam insulation.

If you get one from a scrap yard you will see what I mean.

Regards
Vince
Time served Auto Electrician
Lucas Leeds 1979-1983

[choogh]

Vince. you're a star.
Many thanks
Charlie

[VinceGledhill]

Yeah. Just the one.

Regards
Vince
Time served Auto Electrician
Lucas Leeds 1979-1983

[DrFelch]

Actually Ken is now recommending heaters from a Polo MK2 instead of the MK1... dont know what the difference is though...

[VinceGledhill]

Wow. Times are a changin...

What's the pedal box out of these days? Oh no... not a 1946 morris oxford. x(

What about the build manuel?

Regards
Vince
Time served Auto Electrician
Lucas Leeds 1979-1983

[StuartH]

Vince,
Is build Manuel a spanish chap that comes round to make you a car?? :P

Stuart